Shake-Up in Gay Sex Laws

A Victorian law stopping homosexual men picking up partners in public will
be scrapped in a review of sex crime legislation.

Home Secretary David Blunkett will announce in the autumn that he wants to
abolish the offences of gross indecency, buggery and soliciting by men, all
outlawed under an Act of Parliament passed in 1888. He said they were
"old, outdated laws".

At the same time, tougher laws will be introduced against rapists and
paedophiles.